Of Love And War
by feralshadow77
Summary: When the UNSC turns Cortana into a Human -and a Spartan- to help Chief with the Covenant invasion of Earth, he begins another war... with his feelings for Cortana.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! This is my first story on so if it seems a little choppy that's probably why. This is a Cortana/John romance and action story, taking place on earth, which the Covenant have just landed on. I'm aiming for 10-20 chapters but I really have no idea. Now on with the story!

Err... wait a second... I forgot the disclaimer! Okay here it goes:

I do not own any of the characters portrayed in this story. The godly people at Bungie Studios own them, so go worship them. I do however own so many Halo action figures it would make your head spin!

Okay... now to the story.

Chapter 1

Spartan-117 walked nervously down the narrow halls of one of the UNSC sub-headquarters. Taking a left at a turn he nearly hit an ODST, clad in his gray military suit, who mumbled a curse after passing him. He was heading toward the double-doors a few meters away from him. As he approached, the two ODST who were standing guard gave a quick salute.

"Major Eisley is awaiting you sir." He said in a tone that was suprisingly formal considering what they had been through the last few days. The nearby city of New Mombassa was already invaded, and marines were always getting deployed and pulled back. John himself had already seen countless hours of combat. And now here he stood, ready to face something that was ten times harder than any battle.

He was going to see Cortana again. He hadn't seen her since the whole Halo incident.

He continued through the doors and stood looking at the back of a tall leather chair facing a large window.

"Petty Chief Officer Spartan-117 reporting as ordered, sir!"

"At ease." Was his response. The Chief stood there and after a moment or two of silence the Major started again.

"Chief I believe your well aware that Cortana is going through a... change now, correct? Ah of course your aware, what kind of a question is that?" The Major now turned the chair to face John and set his elbows on the desk.

"With all due respect sir, I'd like to know how it went."

"Of course, of course... well I can tell you that she's human now. No problems with that. Certainly wasn't easy though."

"Can I see her? Where is she?" he said, feeling the inside of his gloved hands become moist. He didn't understand why we was like this. It was only a week since he'd seen her, it couldn't be that. Something else was at work here...

"Well of course you can see her. She's right behind you." John quickly turned around coming face to face with... her. He couldn't believe it. She looked _exactly _the way she did when she was a hologram. Maybe prettier.

'What am I thinking!?' he thought. He quickly shoved those thoughts out of his head.

"Um... hi chief." She said nervously. It was amazing her resembalance to her 'other' form. She had brown hair that went down to her shoulders but other than that it was definitely the old Cortana he knew.

"Awkward moment guys? I'll leave you two alone, I'm sure you need to sort things out. Just be in the training area for your augmentation to the Spartan program at 5:00 tomorro-"

"Spartan Program?" John kept a coolness to his voice, but you could easily tell he was shocked.

"Chief, don't play games with me." He said strictly, "you saw this coming. How couldn't you? Besides it makes no difference. We need her for this war Chief. You can't change it." Chief stood there a few minutes, letting this all sink in.

"Your dismissed." The Major said. He turned back around in his chair as if they were gone already. Chief turned on a dime and walked out of the room. Cortana just stood there confused. She really thought he knew all this already. That all definitely came as a huge shock to him. She turned and ran after him. Eisley was right, they needed to sort this out.

---

Chief walked up to the information desk near the bunks. The marine at the desk handed him a paper with his room number and such. He took the time to notice that Cortana was bunking with him. As if reading his mind the marine said,

"Err... we were all a little out of space with all the ammo and vehicles being brought in. Besides, I don't think Cortana would appreciate bunking with those dirty marines."

Without a word, the Chief simply nodded and walked towards the room. Once inside, he began to take off his armor, starting with his helmet. It felt good to feel real air against his face again; he hadn't taken it off in 3 days. It was then that Cortana chose to walk in.

"Chief..." she began.

"You don't need to call me that anymore Cortana. My name is John." She could already tell that he wasn't fully grasping the whole thing.

"Nobody told you?"

"No."

She sat down on the first cot and sighed. She had known Chief- no, John – for 3 years and now the awkwardness of all this made it feel like they just met. She laid onto the cot and watch Chief continue to take off the rest of his armor (for all intents and purposes he was wearing something under it). Cortana felt herself drifting off and let the sleep come. This was all so tiring. The last thing she saw was John looking at her. She smiled. And for a second she felt something. A warm feeling, something she hadn't felt with John before. And the last thing she thought as she fell asleep was if John had that same feeling right then and there.

And he did.

---

The next morning was amazingly hectic. Cortana woke to see that no one was in the other cot. Assuming he just went for a walk or shower, she simply put on a military jumpsuit like the Spartans wore under their armor – basically just a black uniform – and proceeded down to the augmentation after quickly consulting a clock. After only a few minutes of walking and going down elevators, she arrived at the training area. A few marines were doing push-ups and pull-ups here and there, but other than that she saw no one. Like clockwork, Major Eisley walked in.

'God I hate this guy. He's such a jerk!' Cortana thought to herself as he walked in. She also noticed someone else enter alongside him.

'John...' she thought.

"Alright Cortana. Now we need to begin your training. Obviously before you get your Spartan suit you need a little training. It will be quick though; we need to deploy you to Mombassa soon." Cortana just nodded at his instructions. He continued,

"Now after a little while I decided that what better way for you to learn how a Spartan works than to train with one? That's why I decided to have 117 here direct you through it. I figured it also doesn't hurt considering you've known him a while.

Cortana seemed to perk up at this idea. Training with John? Sure better than training with those dirty marines. And not to mention how horrible having Eisley train her would be.

"Yes sir!" she shot out.

"Good. I'll be back in a few hours to check up on your progress. As I said, we don't have much time." And with that Eisley left the two of them stranded there.

"Um... Shall we begin?" John said. She smiled,

"Sure."

---

Only 2 hours after Eisley left Cortana already felt like she was sick. This stuff wasn't easy! Going through the obstacle course – SPARTAN obstacle course – 2 dozen times, countless pull-ups, curl-ups, and battle simulations, and so many other things...

"Alright, take five." Chief said. He have expected the response he got:

"FIVE?!"

"Yep, Eisley is getting back soon and he'll want a full report. I need to get just a few more things done and-"

"John there is no way while you were training you did all this every day." She said tiredly, "I mean, how could you?"

"It's not easy Cortana."

"Tell me something I don't know." She paused, "I'll do these last few exercises but only so you don't get in trouble... that guy is really mean."

John just gave a very rare laugh.

"Thanks," they stood up in unison. "All we have to do is go through a final battle simulation using heavy weapons." Cortana sighed and began walking beside him... walked until she hit her foot on a weight that happen to be lying on the ground. Naturally she fell to her left... taking John down with her. She landed on top of him in an awkward position.

"John..." She stopped mid-sentence as John put a finger to her mouth (let's all assume he didn't have his armor on). He inched closer to her face. She could feel his breath on her face, and their lips met. He had no idea what came over him. It just felt so right.

At this point Cortana was shocked. She slowly closed her eyes and began to enjoy it.

Now let's look at a few fact's. Spartans go through tons of test and they obviously need good hearing to tell if Covies are coming up on them right? Well it seemed that Chiefs senses, with all his training, were lulled in the few moments he was kissing Cortana. So were they that he didn't here the footsteps coming towards them.

"For the love of god," an all too familiar voice said, "there are places to do this, but not here. I mean really, get a hold of yourselves you two." It was Major Eisley if you haven't guessed already.

And John and Cortana just lay there, both as crimson red as a veteran Elite's armor. Eisley just sighed and began walking away, mumbling,

"Training dismissed."

---

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand cut!

Wow... that seemed rushed...

Okay well like it? Hate it? Wish someone gouged your eyes out after reading it? Either way I appreciate the reviews. Even if I get none I might –MIGHT- continue because I like writing. Don't let that stop you from sending in reviews though! Also is it too short? I can make chapters longer.

Okay how about this. 2 reviews and I will defienetly continue. Less... and I will think about it. Until next time people, cya later!

PS: I decided so you know the chapter is over at the end I'll put 2 lines instead of one.

-Alex


	2. Chapter 2

I'm very pleased with the reviews I got last chapter, so therefore... I'm continuing (Obviously)! I can't believe I missed the whole master chief thing... even after I read all three books. Anywayz, here is chapter 2...

Chapter 2

Both Cortana and John were still red as they walked in to the small room. They didn't really say a whole lot to each other. In fact, they simply walked in and went to bed.

That was last night though. It was the morning after the gym incident and it was still fresh on their minds. As they both got up they didn't really say anything. They changed, went down to the cafeteria and ate the disgusting food the UNSC provided them. Afterwards, they went up and got their Spartan suits on (Cortana got hers after training yesterday) to go down to training. As John got ready to put his helmet on, he found himself staring at Cortana, and was surprised to see her staring back. John started,

"Cortana... we need to talk."

She looked away and blushed.

"John I-"Before she could finish, a loud buzzer came on overhead. The Major came on the loudspeaker.

"All UNSC forces, this is Major Eisley. Report to the hangar. We have received reports that the Covenant are moving up their fronts." It repeated a few times.

"Come on," John began, "let's get down there." They made their way down to the huge, open room where more than a dozen Pelicans were parked. Sergeant Johnson ran over to him.

"Pleasure to see you sir. Those Covenant bastards are comin' this way, and we are goin' to greet 'em." He turned around at a few ODST behind him.

"Ain't that right ladies?" he yelled.

"Sir yes sir!" Johnson just smiled, idly chewing on half a cigar, before turning around and running towards the nearest Pelican. John and Cortana just looked at each other and ran after him. Once aboard the small craft and seated, it took lift off straight towards New Mombassa. (Note: The next few parts of this will be quite similar to the E3 demo if you've ever seen it.)

---

Pvt. Polo and Lt. Snyder sat, sprawled out on their stomachs, on the largest building of new Mombassa. 30 floors below them, random plasma fire blew windows out, and marines screamed for their lives. Large globs of bluish plasma exploded in the air like fireworks and the streets were covered with blood of Humans and Covenant.

The Pvt. Looked at the scene through binoculars while the Lt. fired with a sniper rifle. He began radioing a message to the pelican John and Cortana were in.

"The LZ looks hot, you should find a new landing zone."

---

After receiving the message, the pilot turned to Johnson.

"You heard Lt. Snyder. It's your call Sarge."

Sergeant Johnson just smiled and pointed to the LZ.

"We're going in."

The Pelican dipped towards the LZ (a small landing pad with a ramp going to the streets). It slowly landed with a scraping sound. John and Cortana were the first ones out. They ran down the small ramp, past a tent with a few wounded Marines. They then proceeded to walk into a house and up the stairs, where a few marines fired out of a whole that had been blown into it, yelling curses at the aliens below. Finally, walking down the hole, they came to another hole big enough for them to fit though. They crawled in, out onto a large porch right above the street. A few grunts were down below. John was the first to pull out his battle rifle and pop a few of them in the head. He jumped down off of the patio and continued to eliminate a few Jackals who got in his way. Cortana came up behind him, finishing off the stragglers. Even the training from yesterday hadn't prepared her for this (This is where it stops being like the demo). After the area was relatively secure, a marine drove up in a warthog.

"Cortana, Chief, get aboard. We need to get to the Covenant cruiser that's dropping off all these forces."

Cortana got in the passenger seat and John got on the chain gun on the back. The Marine continued on, John taking out a few Grunts and Jackals on the street. They got to a wider street where a phantom dropship locked on above them. A Brute, which looked like a cross of a gorilla and a rhino, jumped on the hood from it. He roared and grabbed the marine by the neck, hurling him into a wall. Cortana tried to reach for her pistol strapped to her leg, but the Brute was faster. He punched her, knocking her off. The warthog smashed into a nearby wall seconds after John rolled off the back. He smacked the Brute a couple times with the rifle and finished him with 3 quick shots. Turning around, he saw 3 more Brutes approaching him next to a car. He quickly shot the engine, blowing it up, and eviscerating the Brutes. He ran up to Cortana and yanked off her helmet. A trickle of blood ran down her jaw and her eyes were closed. He checked her pulse. She was just unconscious, but her arm seemed to be at a strange angle. Broken. He called up the only marine that survived the encounter.

"Get her back to the CP and have her evaced out of here."

The marine gave a quick nod and set her into the passenger seat of a badly damaged warthog. After getting into the driver seat he drove off, leaving John alone. He glanced over to his right and saw a ghost and quickly jumped onto it. He was about to leave when he heard a whirring sound coming from behind him. 3 Brutes on ghosts were riding straight towards him. He pulled the throttle back and the ghost came to life, nearly instantly reaching a speed of fifty miles per hour. He began driving away from them, straight into a highway tunnel, not noticing the sign that read, 'Auto-shutdown in progress.

As he continued on he could hear the ghosts right on his tail. He looked ahead. The blast door was closing at the end of the tunnel. He leaned to the right. He would never make it with the ghost. It rammed straight into the wall when there was about 2 feet left to close. He flew through it from the impact as the ghost exploded into a puff of blue. His shield flickered against the pavement he was skidding against. He came to a stop, and looked up. There was the Covenant Cruiser. He needed to destroy it in order to stop the reinforcements. It was then he inwardly realized something,

"Where are the Elites?"

Like clockwork, blue cocoon-like shuttles began coming down from the sky. 5 of them encircled John, stabbing into the hard concrete all around him. The closest one Hissed open, steam coming from inside. The front blew off, and he saw a Spec. Op. Elite standing in front of him. The other four did the same. They circled him, barking things to each other and walking around him like they were toying with him. He pulled out his 2 SMGs and stood waiting.

The apparent leader barked out a battle cry and pulled out an energy sword. The others followed suit. John put away 1 SMG and pulled out a plasma grenade, flicking the switch as it began to glow. He jumped towards the nearest Elite, slammed the grenade into his face. The Elite screamed out of fear and ran towards another, blowing them both up. A quick swerve behind him showed another charging at him. He shot a burst into his shoulder, stunning him. He ran up to him and grabbed the Elite's arm, twisting it with a snap and breaking it. He ripped the sword from his hand and cleanly cut his stomach open. He turned around, and stared at the other two. He threw the sword at one Elite. Not thinking quickly enough, the Elite stood as it flew through him. He stammered back, and fell over with a thump. The final Elite charged towards him so bluntly like the rest of them. John tried to fire a burst into him and realized he had no ammo in his clip. There was no time to reload. At the last minute he yanked out a combat knife and stabbed it into his neck. He dropped the sword and died. He again looked up at the cruiser. He was about to continue to the gravity lift when he saw an explosion rip through the hull, annihilating it. He looked in disbelief. The last remaining orbital cannon had just blown it to pieces. All he had done was for nothing. It was only a matter of time now before the marines wiped up the remaining Covenant forces. He sighed and began walking in the relative direction of a pelican about 100 yards away. He needed to go see Cortana. He also needed to have a long talk with the Major as to why he was dispatched in the first place.

---

The pelican John had gotten into slowly pulled back into the hangar. He quickly walked over to the blast door leading inside the main building. In no time he was in the infirmary. He quickly talked to a marine to see where Cortana got brought in. Walking over to the room, he opened the door. A doctor finished touching up a few cuts on her body, the most serious on her neck where the Brutes claws pierces her skin. The doctor, after seeing John, swiftly left the room. John walked over and sat on her bed, taking his helmet off.

"Hey." He said with a smirk.

She just smiled.

"Shouldn't you be off in that cruiser?" she asked.

"That god damned Eisley dispatched me for no reason. The orbital guns had already taken it out."

"Apparently he didn't think all this through huh?" she responded.

"No..." he said. They sat like that for a few minutes. John finally broke it.

"What were you saying?"

"What do you mean?" she asked questioningly.

"You began to say something, before we left. What was it?" She stared at him for a few seconds before motioning him closed. She whispered,

"Maybe it would be better if I showed you..." she leaned in and kissed him on the lips softly. He relaxed into it. After 10 seconds or so she broke it.

"I love you John."

He gave that smirk she loved so much to see.

"I love you too, Cortana."

They kissed each other again, uninterrupted this time. Wrapping his arm around her waist, careful of her arm, John lay down next to her and set his chin down on her head. And they fell asleep like that, dreaming of each other.

---

I'm really sorry guys. Short chapter but I was tired. What can I say? And besides, you got to see John and Cortana admit their love to each other! That's worth like 10 chapters.

Seriously, with Halo two coming out on Tuesday (I'm going to midnight madness tomorrow so I'm sort of getting it tomorrow) I won't have as much time to write since I'll be glued to my TV. Also since it's the week now I have school too. Sigh That's why I got this chapter out today yet. Besides, I was inspired by all the reviews :). Expect another chapter by Wednesday. Anywayz, see ya later guys.

PS: Ignore the PS from chapter 1.


	3. Chapter 3

A quick note:

I am REALLY sorry I couldn't update sooner. I didn't really count on how busy I'd be this week. Next chapter will be up soon. However while I'm here I'd like to address something.

Now I received a review from someone about how Spartans get trained form age six, etc.

I am TOTALLY aware of this. Apparently if you're sending in this review you did not read the beginning very carefully. I have read all three books numerous times, so don't act like I'm clueless as to the story of Halo. I've said in my profile that I do appreciate constructive criticism, but I do wish you would read more carefully before you decide to do so.

Now... on a lighter note, here's chapter 3:

Chapter 3 Cortana was still sleeping when John woke up with her in that hospital bed. He decided he'd let her sleep and go talk to Major Eisley about that Cruiser. Besides, he didn't really want the marines seeing Cortana and him like that and creating any perverted jokes. He ignored the 2 new ODST guarding the door and walked right in. 

"Ah... Master Chief, I suppose you're pissed about the Cruiser now aren't you?"

John hated how blunt he could be. In all truth, he hated him period. He just clenched his teeth and answered.

"Yes."

"Well put simply Chief, we realized that one of the orbital guns was still operational and opened fire. It made no difference, the target got away. A Prophet."

"And tell me, sir, what would have happened if I had already been in that Cruiser?"

The Major looked out the large window, not looking at John. He began in a much harsher voice.

"Let me show you soemthing." He reached into his desk and pulled out a brown classified folder. "Open it."

John deliberately opened it and stared at the papers in his hands.

"This is the classified information for Spartan 003... he was from the initial program."

The major snatched the papers from his hands.

"That was my son. Nathan. I doubt you knew him but he was in the first program and you can guess that he died in the process of being turned Spartan."

John processed this all for a little while.

"Cortana was turned into a Spartan because we had no choice. You see Chief, marines know that the Spartans were good. They were great, the best of the best. It's the same reason that all dead Spartans are marked MIA instead of KIA. Knowing the Spartans could die would make humans lose hope, but knowing –or thinking- they are alive gives them hope. Believe me, I hate Spartans. If it had been possible, Cortana probably wouldn't even be human right now."

John didn't say a word. He didn't want to. If he could have his way he would have put a bullet into Eisley's head. But no, he just walked away. He learned to do that long ago.

(Flashback)

John was up to kick in his traditional game of kickball he played every day that he came out for recess. As the ball came spinning towards him, he kicked it as hard as he could. It went hurtling right into a kid's head. The kid happened to be the biggest kid and school, and a bully at that. The bully held the ball in front of him, and just as John was about to apologize and take it, the bully kicked it himself, sending it far over the playground fence. And he just started laughing.

Now John could have slammed the kid in the face, but that wouldn't go well with the teachers. Instead he just went to go retrieve it, hearing the bully and a few of the bully's friends cackling behind him.

'Just walk away.'

(End Flashback)

As John stopped thinking about his past he realized he was at his room already. He opened the door and saw Cortana putting on her armor.

"Hey John... you alright? You look angry." He ignored her and grabbed his suit, beginning to put it on. She felt kind of hurt, but just continued putting hers on. She finished right when John did even though she had a head start, he was good at getting it on ASAP.

"Sorry." He mumbled. She smiled. At least he apologized.

"What's wrong?"

"Eisley... is an asshole." He smiled at her before taking a paper off the small table.

"We're supposed to take a pelican to Cairo orbital station to pick something up and get a new mission briefing." John simply nodded and put his helmet on with a 'hiss' of compressed air. He slung his assault rifle over his shoulder and latched a pistol onto his hip.

"Let's go."

---

The pelican pulled into the docking bay with expert precision and John and Cortana jumped down, heading for the door. As they walked in a marine greeted them.

"Corporal Smokes, 7th Company. I'll show you where to report, c'mon."

They followed until they came up to a door with blue lettering saying 'Armory'. They walked in. A man walked up to them.

"Well hey, I've been expecting you guys. I run the armory here and I need to introduce you to a few things. Chief, you can go first. Take off your armor." The man had a distinct southern accent. After he had finished, the man pressed a button on a console. A pillar slid out from the floor, holding a brand new suit of armor.

"This here is a brand new Mark VI suit of armor. Go ahead, try it on. Just remember to take it easy until you get a feel for the upgrades."

As John slid the helmet on he saw the new HUD. The shields began to charge-a lot faster than normal. The man made a few comments about the suit, but what John liked was the fact that the HUD now supported 2 weapon hook-ups. Dual wielding would come in handy. After getting in the suit he took a seat watching Cortana get into her suit.

She then proceeded to sit down next to him.

"Now it says here on this paper your supposed to report to the bridge which just so happened to be directly above us. Just take this here elevator and you'll be there in no time. He motioned to a small door behind him. They got up, thanked him and in no time they were at the bridge. A man in a white suit looking to be about 60 years of age approached him. Chief and Cortana saluted.

"Now we don't have time for formal introductions, this will need to be quick. We hacked into the database of the Cruiser before Eisley so elegantly blew it to pieces. Apparently the ship that left it minutes before its destruction – the one that contained a Prophet – was heading towards these coordinates." He handed them a slip of paper. "Now Captain Miranda Keyes here will take you aboard her ship and take you where it went, but we must hurry as not to lose the Prophet.

"Understood sir." John said strictly. He and Cortana both took a quick trip to the docking bay. Once there, they saw the ship. Keyes was already directing a few ODST onboard and loading up gear.

"Are we ready?" she asked them. They nodded. "Then let's go."

They climbed up the ramp onto the ship and saw none other than Sergeant Johnson standing there.

"So happy you two could make it." He said with a smile. With that, Cortana and Chief sat down.

"How's your arm?" he asked.

"Not as serious of a break as we thought, its fine."

He smiled and wrapped his hand around hers. It was gonna be a long day.

---

Sorry, another short chapter. Not a whole lot of fluff, in fact it'll be mostly action most of next chapter too. This chapter was supposed to accomplish 2 things.

Show that Eisley hates Spartans.

Set the story up for the incoming mission.

If I did those 2 things than its all good. Now I'm not gonna set a time for the next chapter because we all see what happened when I did that, so I'll just say that I'll try and get it up soon.

Keep bringing in the reviews, and see you next chapter!


	4. Author Note

To my reviewers:

I really apologize about the story and how it's not updated. I've been looking it over and thinking about it for a few weeks now, trying to get ideas of how I can save this story. Yes, SAVE. After actually playing Halo 2 I realized how horrible scrambled up this story really is. My decision remains whether I will scrap it or not.

I might continue it though. Doubtful, but possible. Maybe I'll just save the chapters on my comp, scrap the story, and do them over again in order this time. No matter what happens, I'm really sorry. I still have to think about this.

If you don't see a new story and/or chapter or whatever in a few weeks, I'm afraid this story won't be continuing.

Forgive me,

Alex


End file.
